Who Designed This Underworld Dungeon?

"Your Majesty, your body is weak right now; are you sure you want to enter the dungeon? In my opinion, it would be better to opt for conservative treatment."

"Conservative treatment has had no effect. Do we want the king to continue suffering?"

"But can entering the dungeon really solve the problem?"

The ministers surrounding the issue of whether or not to let King Ainz III enter the Sain Dungeon debated endlessly. Sitting at the main position, Selene listened to their arguments, remaining silent for a moment.

Some felt that the people above ground were utterly helpless regarding whether the king's ailment was a curse or disease, so how could the dungeon possibly have a solution?

It was discovered that after Eliphas's death, the brainwashing he imposed on others was lifted, but the beastification caused by the Fallen Demon Egg could not be resolved. This beastification was inherently different from that caused by the Happiness Egg, which could be addressed.

Others tried using an item from the Sain Dungeon, the "Goddess' Blessing" provided by Gapar. That miraculous potion indeed restored Ainz III to perfect health, allowing him to immediately resume efforts to rebuild the royal city.

However, after only one night, Ainz III's beastification erupted again, completely baffling people. The Goddess' Blessing should have fully healed him, so what was happening?

After much discussion, someone brought up the notion of the unusual purple starlight appearing during the conflict with Eliphas. Anyone who witnessed the purple starlight could recognize the transcendent aura it carried.

This chaos caused by Eliphas brought unknown entities into clear view. Not just the Holy Light Church, but all churches, including the elves' grand library, were frantically searching for records on purple starlight. Although much history had been lost, some tidbits from scattered excavated relics provided slight intelligence.

The true nature of the unknown being was ultimately conjectured to be the Evil God "Hidden Dull Star," once banished by the joint forces of the gods.

However, simply knowing the name of this unknown entity seemed futile.

What was known was only that this entity frequently appeared in ancient times as a cluster of purple stars, driven away by the gods for its excessively malevolent deeds.

Beyond that, there was nothing.

Taking into account Eliphas's chaos during its manifestation, this indicated that the Evil God Hidden Dull Star could still maintain a connection with the earth.

Although the gods hid themselves beautifully, the evil god remained active!

Those who confirmed this information were dumbfounded.

Based on these conclusions, court magicians speculated whether the Goddess' Blessing truly healed Ainz III completely, but the disgruntled Hidden Dull Star cursed the king again?

After all, the Goddess's Blessing could only be effective once!

Though Eliphas's involvement was paramount in these beastification events, the evil god was, after all, a god and perhaps possessed the ability to circumambulate Eliphas and still induce beastification?

Those who uncovered the truth about the curse on Ainz III immediately set out to deploy protective measures against the evil god. However, long lacking experience in confronting an evil god, people could only rely on ancient texts and amass a great deal of spiritual protection mechanisms.

This method was somewhat effective but not enough; the king continued to suffer episodes.

After Vienma inspected using the special methods of the elf clan, a result emerged that left people feeling even more powerless.

Due to the beastification lasting too long and receiving the special attention from Eliphas and Hidden Dull Star, beastification had deeply fused with Ainz III's blood, becoming an integral part of his body. This beast blood could no longer be treated as an "abnormal state" that might be cured.

"The court magicians have recently developed a method of maintaining the king's consciousness through massive blood replacement," an official stated. "Coupled with the soon-to-be-completed composite Spiritual Protection Magic Array, blocking the evil god's invasion is no problem."

"No problem? Are you truly that confident? Had it not been for Sain and the hero's emergence, we might all be dead at the hands of that villain Eliphas!" someone countered.

Seeing people argue back and forth, Selene furrowed her brow and said:

"I have already consulted my father's opinion."

Everyone threw her a look full of 'why didn't you say so earlier.'

After this meeting concluded, the news spread.

Ainz III would enter the dungeon!

While the royal council was meeting, the adventurer's guild, the magician association, the Shadow Brotherhood, and various organizations large and small, even the Chef Federation, were holding meetings.

The themes of these meetings were inescapably bound to three keywords: Sain, Demon Clan, Evil God.

"Sain Dungeon once again demonstrated power beyond ordinary abilities. Eliphas, confirmed as a descendant of the Demon King, was also severely damaged in Sain Dungeon."

"Apart from the Nameless King, the entities aiding in dealing with Eliphas in Sain: the scythe-wielding elder, the Ancient Dragon wielding thunder, Giant King Yum, and the mysterious archer firing unprecedented gravity magic arrows... all may potentially be leaders or even stronger entities within Sain."

"Sain has already demonstrated competence ranking among the top of all dungeons. How should we view this dungeon moving forward?"

The adventurer's guild boasts a headquarters in every nation. During this moment at the kingdom headquarters, branch managers from various major cities gathered.

"What else can be done but treat it like the Red Teeth Dungeon, take precautions, observe carefully, oversee covertly, and do nothing unless Sain exhibits an overt tendency to go berserk," one branch manager suggested.

"Yet, given Saind's proximity to the royal city, we might need more cautious control measures. Daily, numerous adventurers enter and exit Sain, possibly triggering a change or even rampage in the dungeon," someone rigorously proposed, "I suggest controlling the number of people entering and exiting Sain daily."

"The last person who made a suggestion like yours was Count Philip, and now his grave is overgrown as high as yours," Ceder remarked with a touch of sarcasm.

Count Charon was preoccupied with his toy manufacturing business and tackling the recent rise of pirated products, completely forgetting to tend his father's grave and even neglecting to arrange caretakers, leaving Philip's grave quite overgrown.

What made Charon most furious was that those pirated toys aimed at the children's market didn't "cut corners"! Isn't this breaking market rules? A heavy-handed response is necessary!

"Ceder, then what's your suggestion?" The official president, who had a dignified countenance, asked, "You have interacted with Sain the longest, I trust your opinion."

Ceder smiled slightly, a smile that usually appeared when he was instigating trouble everywhere.

"In my opinion, why not please Sain."

"Please?" Everyone found the word rather strange.

"That's right, go all out to please the Sain Dungeon," Ceder said somewhat enthusiastically, "like a stepchild pleasing their stepparents in a restructured family, a gold-digging harlot pleasing a fat-bellied wealthy businessman, or a thief eager to offload stolen goods pleasing the black market customers—please Sain fiercely!"

"..."

People more or less understood what he meant, but weren't these analogies... uh, a bit too unrefined for such an occasion?

The official president rubbed his brow with some helplessness, "I understand what you mean, but how do we go about doing it?"

Ceder responded, "Just like some countries establish a state religion, establish Sain as the 'National Dungeon,' and make the day after the Eliphas turmoil an annual Sain Day celebration. I'm sure Sain would be very pleased."

A certain branch president found his remarks rather bizarre and asked, "What's your solid basis for this? Can this really please the dungeon?"

"Indeed, someone has already tried performing a ritual for the White Blood Dungeon, and within a week after the ceremony, the resources of the White Blood Dungeon were indeed enriched, and the strength of monsters decreased significantly."

"But I heard the White Blood Dungeon is now notorious for its ferocity?"

"It became ferocious after the meteor shower event, maybe it got new inspiration and ideas from somewhere."

Gong Qiying sneezed.

After the meeting ended, the residents of the Royal City witnessed the holding of a peculiar ceremony.

They saw a group of branch presidents of the adventurer's guild leading their most prestigious adventurers to conduct a ritual near the teleportation gate of the Sain Dungeon.

This ritual could be described as ancient and modern, not only incorporating the kingdom's conventional rituals but also borrowing from the Warrior Country's martial contests, the Ice Snow Country's snow-calling ritual, the Holy Light Church's sunbathing ritual, and even the Barbaric Land's shaman dance—it was very complicated.

The main reason was that people didn't know which type of ritual Sain Dungeon preferred, so they just chose a bit of everything.

No matter what Sain Dungeon thought after witnessing this five-day-long ritual, the residents of the Royal City were thoroughly entertained, and even the pain brought by the Eliphas turmoil was alleviated quite a bit.

Some residents, in order to thank Sain for the significant contribution in resolving the Eliphas turmoil, voluntarily participated in the ritual activities, which led to the originally planned one-day ceremony extending to five days.

And mixed within the crowd, Gong Qiying, after watching, couldn't help but give the presidents a thumbs-up.

Sain was greatly delighted.

The proposal to crown the Sain Dungeon with the title of "National Dungeon" was also sent to the Royal Palace, where one of the most influential figures was Princess Serine, who was obsessed with the Sain Dungeon.

So this proposal is likely to be approved soon, right?

Using this proposal as a catalyst, some opportunistic officials suggested that while establishing Sain Day, they could base it on this five-day ritual activity and have an extravagant five-day holiday every year.

If such a proposal could pass, Sain would indeed have done a great deed, possibly turning the entire kingdom a lush green with Sain's color.

In the aftermath of the Eliphas turmoil, everyone had their daily routines disrupted, busy with their own affairs.

The Magician Association was attempting to research the gravity magic that appeared briefly and left a profound impression.

The Shadow Brotherhood was discussing whether there was any entertainment regarding Sain to share.

The Chef Federation was exploring solutions for dealing with beastification people—of course, the solutions discussed by the chefs were probably not proper methods.

So, how about a certain Dungeon Lord?

Recently, besides wandering around the Royal City like an idle member of society, listening to and enjoying people's praises of the Sain Dungeon, Gong Qiying also heard some news about Ainz III through certain channels.

If the uncontrollable beastification factor influenced by the evil god turned into the king's blood, requiring frequent and large blood changes to suppress beastification, then why not take the chance to replace the beast blood controlled by the evil god within the king with the blood governed by Sain?

For this reason, Gong Qiying was researching and attempting to modify a tool from the Bloodborne curse.

[Blood Collection Bottle]

[Special blood widely circulated for blood therapy, capable of restoring life force]

[Those who received such unique blood therapy in Yarn would thereafter feel they could draw life force through the same blood transfusion method]

[Thus, most people in Yarn became bloodthirsty]